The Olympics have begun in Vancouver, but The Brooklyn Paper is hauling in the gold — we’ve just won four more first-place awards from the Suburban Newspapers of America.
In the SNA’s annual editorial award competition, The Brooklyn Paper won first place for best editorial writing and best entertainment/lifestyle section for its Go Brooklyn arts section, which does such a great job covering the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum and all the other cultural riches of our borough.
In addition, The Paper’s Editor Gersh Kuntzman won the best column writing category for his Brooklyn Angle columns and the best arts and entertainment feature category for his profile of Park Slope comic John Hodgman.
The Paper also won second place in the continuing coverage category for its “Cleaning the Gowanus” series; and honorable mentions in headline writing (for “Gym-nauseam,” which captured a controversy over a college expansion plan); best non-page one layout (for Go Brooklyn by Art Director Leah Mitch); and best graphic artwork categories.
“I’m experiencing a full range of emotions — pride in our wonderfully talented team, exhilaration that our staff has been honored by its peers, and humility that we don’t deserve such accolades,” said Kuntzman. “Since humility doesn’t suit me, I’ll go with pride and exhilaration for now.”
The editorials that won the award included one on then-Councilman David Yassky’s flip-flop on term limits, a suspect campaign by former Councilman Steve DiBrienza, and a call for Prospect Park users to clean up after themselves.
Kuntzman was specifically cited for a Brooklyn Angle column about a sex toy shop and a judge who recused himself from a big case because he had read one of Kuntzman’s Brooklyn Angle columns (how’s that for self-referential!).
It’s not the first time that The Paper has been honored by the SNA, which represents more than 2,400 daily and weekly newspapers in both suburban and urban community markets across the country.
Last year, we won five SNA awards, including for our editorials, our entertainment section and its fine front-page layout, our front-page design by Senior Editor Vince DiMiceli.
We also won for “Best Local Community Web Site” in the same year.
And in 2008, The Paper won Newspaper of the Year, while Kuntzman picked up Editor of the Year and Best Columnist — the SNA’s first-ever triple crown.
This year, we won three awards from the Independent Free Papers of America — including the coveted Vic Jose Award for General Excellence.
